Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Deep analysis of candy packaging

I like marketing / advertising. I like candy. I like being snarky so I couldn't help but remark on the back of the box of Zours candy I purchased:

If you're scoring at home, the red on the far left is watermelon. The identical shade of red on the right side is cherry. So, if you want watermelon, pick a red one out of the box. If you want cherry pick a red one out of the box. See the difference? Me neither. I nominate this as the most worthless "candy legend" ever.

Also, check out the front:

So I guess these two are like the mascots of the Zours candy. And I think they're supposed to actually be ... Zours. And I think the logic the marketers had in mind is as follows:

Show some Zours eating actual fruit.

Show the Zours' reaction to real fruit as intensely sour.

This will make people assume that, since Zours themselves find normal fruit sour, humans will in turn find Zours sour ... like in bizarro world.

Right?

Wrong. I mean, I know Zours are sour because, well, they are sour. But I find the concept of Zours eating normal fruit and going all pucker-face to just be straight up bizarre. I don't like the idea of my candy eating its own food. Candy shouldn't have to eat food to sustain and it certainly shouldn't find normal food to be more intense than it really is. Candy should just wait around to be eaten by me.